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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

A Wedding Weekend Recap

Wow! What a great weekend we had over here! Henry's last day of school was on Thursday and on Friday we woke up and hopped in the car for a ride up north to Traverse City, Michigan for Jon's cousin's wedding.

We knew we were off to a good start when we came across a Jimmy John's drive-thru while on our way up north!

Only in my dreams have I seen such a thing. I mean, I knew they existed, but I'd never actually utilized the awesomeness that is a Jimmy John's drive-thru!

Okay, okay, so I need to get out more.

We do, in fact, have a Jimmy John's in our town, but not a drive-thru, which I suppose is probably for the best as I'd probably just end up eating at this fine establishment every single day of my life.

We drove and drove and drove and finally we arrived at our destination, Traverse City! Our room wasn't going to be ready until four, so we went putt-putting at our favorite putt-putt golf course.

Sidenote: Years ago, before Jon and I were married, we went camping in Traverse City and we happened to go putt-putt golfing at this same place. They used to hand out little pirate rings and at one point Jon jokingly "proposed" to me and gave me a Pirate's Cove putt-putt ring. It wasn't the real deal proposal or anything, BUT I still have that ring in my possession. Now here we were at that same place all these years later and with these two sweet little kiddos in tow! :)

For the first ten holes or so Eliza was pretty grumpy as she was still waking up from a quick nap she had taken while in the car only minutes earlier. We carried on with the putt-putting festivities and she eventually warmed up to the whole being awake and alert thing. Ha.

It was a little before four, so we headed to our hotel and checked in.

I was surprised to walk into our room and see this...

That VIEW!

Oh my gorgeousness!!

Isn't this stunning?

I had NO idea that we'd have a room with this view, but Jon had informed me just after we'd walked in that he had upgraded us to a renovated room in this tower!

Well done, Jon. Well done.

If you're unfamiliar with what this view is exactly, then let me explain real quick.

Up in Traverse City there are two bays formed from Lake Michigan and there are two "arms," or peninsulas, the Leelanau Peninsula and the Old Mission Peninsula. The view from our room is overlooking the golf course of our hotel, Grand Traverse Resort, and the East Arm (Old Mission Peninsula) of the Grand Traverse Bay.

You guys, this part of the state is one of my most favorite places ever! It seriously makes my heart sing. :)

*swoon*

I was in heaven.

As much as we could've just stayed in our room, we figured we should probably eat. We headed to one of our favorite Traverse City go-to restaurants, Red Mesa.

Here, my friends, you'll see a Mango Margarita. It was delicious. Aaaaand since we were eating so early (we arrived before five o'clock), happy hour was still a go and all margaritas were four bucks...so I had two of them.

Because, hello? - vacation.

We decided that after dinner, ice cream was a must. We texted Jon's parents, who were also in town for the wedding, and asked them if they wanted to meet up for some dessert.

They said, "yes," and they were on their way. Meanwhile, we found this store next to the ice cream shop. After a quick observation of the cost of things (ahem...$500 for a vase), I quickly informed the kids to not touch anything... EEK!

After a quick stroll around the store, we high-tailed it out of there without breaking anything and I could once again breathe...

Outside of the store they had lots of outdoor landscaping products set up everywhere.

It was a perfect photo opportunity, if you ask me...look at that adorable bridge!

Next up, ice cream!

After dessert we headed back to our room and decided to let the kids swim off the sugar, so down to the pool we went. I didn't get any pics while at the pool, but we all had a super fun time. I especially enjoyed my mommy time in the hot tub, so much so that I think I may have fallen asleep or I was in deep meditation? Either way, I was crazy relaxed.

We headed up to our room only to find this sunset view! This view just kept getting better and better!

Sorry I keep talking about this view, but it was absolute perfection to me...

Saturday morning we slowly woke up and then we headed off to the pool yet again. We didn't want to leave the resort as we were going to have to start getting ready for the wedding around noon.

It sure was shaping up to be a beautiful day.

Also, I've gotta throw this out there... This is our hotel. I also stayed here when I was a little girl, and ever since then I've always, ALWAYS thought it resembles an elephant.Do you see it? An elephant is ALL I see...

Anyhoo, after swimming, our room wasn't quite finished being turned down, so we went for a bunch of elevator rides in order to kill some time. We figured why not go to the top and check out the 17th floor!

So up, up, up we went.........

.......and boy, was it worth it......

Our room was done and it was time to get ready and then leave for the wedding ceremony...

Yeah, Eliza and I took a bathroom selfie.

Ignore that towel on the floor... :o

The kids we ready to wedding it up!

Here's the view from my passenger side window as were on our way to the church on the Old Mission peninsula.

Am I selling you on a vacation to northern Michigan yet?! I hope so!

We had arrived. The church was gorgeous.

I'm so sad I didn't think to get a picture of it, BUT, do you see the vineyard behind us? Yeah, the driveway to the church was surrounded by a vineyard. I'm wondering if they just make their own wine? If so, that's pretty darn cool.

The ceremony was amazing, the bride and groom were madly in love and the priest was hilarious!

On our way back into town we stopped and took in the view at this scenic lookout.

We passed several wineries on the ride and since we had about an hour and a half until cocktail hour, we decided to stop in and get a drink at this castle-looking winery, but we weren't sure about whether or not we could take the kids inside.

Guess what?!

Jon went inside and checked out the scene and, wouldn't you know it - kids were a go!! WooHOO!!!

I think I was the most excited...obviously. LOL!

Jon told me to get a glass of vino, so of course I obliged. Jon, on the other hand, didn't get a drink because he had to drive. Boo. The kids were given complimentary juice boxes and oyster crackers! Say whhhhaaaaaatttt?!?! Ninety seconds before walking inside we weren't even sure kids were allowed and now, here we were, juice boxes and crackers in hand! Do ALL wineries do this?! For real? Is this a thing?

We headed back to our room one more time before cocktail hour to just let the kids play on their LeapFrogs for a few minutes before heading down to party...

...then it was time to get the party started!

Oh and I've gotta tell you about my eye.

Earlier in the day my eye was bothering me a bit and it seemed to be a little red. It felt like there was something in there, but the feeling went away for a while and I didn't really give it much more thought...that one glass of wine may have contributed to me not checking my eyeball. LOL! Well, I went to use the restroom while at the reception and imagine my surprise when I saw my eye like this! It was super red! Ugh! I think I had something in my eye earlier in the day and it had become crazy irritated. I was nervous to talk to people because I didn't want them to think I was contagious or anything...

Luckily, as long as I looked straight ahead it was wasn't too bad. Henry told me if I looked to the side that I looked "scary." Great. We ended up saying hello to a few people all while I looked at them straight in the eye and kept a cheesy smile on my face to hopefully deflect them from my "eye situation." LOL! I swear, sometimes I think I'm on a Friends or Seinfeld episode. Does anyone else feel like that?

Anyway, back to the party:

At approximately ten o'clock the party was ending, so we walked to our room, put the kids to bed and Jon and I ordered a ourselves a pizza. We ate the entire thing. It was magical.

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